WASHINGTON - American deaths since the invasion of Iraq have reached 2,500, the Pentagon said Thursday, marking a grim milestone in the wake of recent events that President Bush hopes will reverse the war’s unpopularity at home.

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“It’s a number,” White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters at the White House.

President George W Bush asked for federal spending cuts in Medicare, education, environmental programs, NOAA, Department of the Interior, agriculture, and transportation funding for fiscal year 2007. The White House will submit spending increases for key military advancement initiatives in Iraq and for Afghanistan, according to a Pentagon leaked memo.

During the week ahead President George W Bush will seek $129 billion in additional financing for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The new spending request covers expenses for calendar year 2006. The additional request is the third interim request for dollars following the United States’ invasion of Iraq in March 2003, which is not included in fiscal budget requests.

In addition to military maintenance costs, President Bush will request additional money to finance long-term operations in the Middle East; figures of which cover contractor labor and Halliburton-subsidiary KBR Inc.’s maintenance expenses. Those figures have not yet been disclosed, however Halliburton reported $2 billion in profits for fiscal year 2005 — a triple recovery from its more than $1 billion reported loss for 2004.

President Bush plans to propose a 5 percent across the board increase for defense spending for the 2007 fiscal year. The White House plans to submit a $439.3 billion spending bill.